Philippines moved onto tax haven white list

The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development has officially removed the Philippines from its tax haven grey list and placed it onto the approved white list.

Countries on the grey list, currently including Liberia, Panama and Uruguay, are places that have yet to completely fall in line with OECD regulations. The Philippines were previously on this list but since April 2009 the country has worked to meet legislative reforms and the OECD has now moved it on to the white list.

The Philippines removal from the grey list will now allow it to gain investments from other OECD white list countries, including Japan and the United States.

To gain its place on the white list the Philippines created a revenue regulation that was put in place by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which puts into practice Republic Act 1002. This allows the Bureau of Internal Revenue to exchange financial information to the internationally-agreed tax standard.

Previously, the OECD also had a black list, this list was for countries that had not met any of the tax standards laid out by the OECD. This list is now completely empty.